The Anchorage Bucs defeated the Peninsula Oilers 9-5 on Saturday in Alaska Baseball League action at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai.
Oilers head coach Larry McCann placed the game under protest after three batters in the top of the first inning due to actions of the home plate umpire.
That saga started at about 5:52 p.m., when the home plate umpire motioned to the press box that he wanted the game to get going. Oilers general manager Derek Foote, from the Oilers dugout, yelled to the home plate umpire that the game would not start until the scheduled time of 6 p.m.
At about 6:02 p.m., the starting lineups had been announced and the national anthem had been played. Oilers starter Sam Silversmith had not taken his warmup pitches from the mound, but the home plate umpire motioned that it was time to begin the game.
After Silversmith threw two pitches to leadoff batter Cade Lacy, McCann came out to talk to the home plate umpire.
McCann said later he had gone to the bathroom and came back surprised the game had started without Silversmith getting warmup pitches. McCann said that’s why he went to talk to the ump.
After McCann went back to the dugout, Bucs leadoff hitter Cade Lacy fouled off a pitch to go down 1-2 in the count. On the next pitch, Lacy tried to check his swing and the home plate umpire ruled Lacy safe. When the Oilers dugout, which had a perfect angle on the checked swing, asked for an appeal to first base, the home plate umpire did not grant the appeal.
Lacy then reached on an error by third baseman Ty Thomas.
The next batter, Myles Smith, reached on four straight pitches that were called balls by the home plate umpire. Silversmith did not agree and walked toward the home plate umpire shouting a few choice words that assured Silversmith’s ejection.
Drew Dickson came in for the Oilers and struck out Lex Boedicker, then McCann placed the game under protest.
“I just did it because that’s kind of formality,” McCann said. “They never really amount to anything.”
McCann said what really angers him is the injury risk to players. He said Silversmith should have gotten warmup pitches, and said it was tough to ask Dickson to come in so unexpectedly.
Dickson did get as much time as he needed to warm up.
“It’s not about the umpires, it’s not about me, it’s about these kids,” McCann said. “So in that instance, he’s gonna get a kid hurt.”
Like McCann, Anchorage Bucs coach Ken Hokuf said the protest probably wouldn’t amount to anything.
“It’s out of my control,” he said. “I would have done the same thing. The question I have is what rule it would have been under, but it’s out of my hands.”
The Bucs are 7-1 against the Oilers this season after winning the series 4-1. The Bucs lead the league at 10-7, while the Anchorage Glacier Pilots are 8-5, the Mat-Su Miners are 7-7, the Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks are 6-7 and the Oilers are 5-10.
The Oilers next play in a nonconference game against the Monarchs at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Seymour Park.
As the Bucs did all series, they took advantage of any opportunity. In the first inning, that meant jumping out to a 4-0 lead on an RBI single by Jaxon Sorenson and a three-run homer by Dante Turgeon.
Dickson ended up giving the Oilers six innings on short notice, yielding five runs — three earned — on three hits.
The Oilers were able to drive the ball on Bucs starter Luis Becerra and cut the gap to 4-3 after two innings, but that’s all Becerra would give up in 4 2-3 innings.
“We were just hitting it right at them,” McCann said.
Hokuf said his pitching staff has been limiting damage by keeping pressure on the hitters instead of giving into the pressure of having runners on base.
If that leads to a few loud outs, so be it.
“That’s the thing we’re trying to preach to them,” Hokuf said. “Believe in the nine on one, let the defense play.
“It doesn’t matter how hard they hit the ball when it’s at people or where we can make plays. You’ve got to trust your defense.”
The Bucs went up 7-3 in the top of the third. The Oilers battled back with two in the bottom of the sixth, but Anchorage struck for two in the top of the eighth.
Logan Hurd and JD Goodcase combined for three innings of shutout relief to close the door for the Bucs.
Ryan Brown gave up two runs in two innings for the Oilers, but Harrison Metz, of Homer High and Legion Twins fame, was able to put up a scoreless frame in the ninth.
Joey Nerat was 2 for 2 with two RBIs for the Bucs, while Curtis Hebert was 2 for 4.
Owen McElfatrick was 2 for 3 for the Oilers, while Ryson Ujimori came back from a Thursday injury to go 2 for 4. Theo Forshey added two RBIs.
Anchorage Bucs shortstop Curtis Hebert loses his glove in trying to tag out Peninsula Oilers’ Owen McElfatrick on a stolen base Saturday, June 24, 2023, at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
